Texting Woes
by Amazing Bluie
Summary: Danny's excited about getting a new cell phone.  After all, what could possibly go wrong with technology?


A/N: I own nothing recognizable.

* * *

Danny held his shining, black and green phone out in front of him, wearing a goofy smile on his face. He got a cell phone! Just this morning, before he left to take his final exam for the semester, Danny Fenton got a cell phone!

He was excited.

Danny had even already called ahead to the school and had his name and number entered at the last minute into the constantly updated phone guidebook that the students had started up. Anyone who didn't mind everyone having their number could turn it in, and it would be printed out in the guidebook just before school and be distributed once a week. Danny got his phone just in time for the last week's update before break.

He wasn't exactly supposed to, of course. It was supposed to wait until after Danny and his parents got the results from his last exam. But his dad had jumped the gun and surprised him with it, despite his mother's objections and scowling. She only really went along with it at the end because arguing would make Jazz late. She had to hurry for her own exam, and since Sam and Tucker were already done with their exams, Danny had opted to ride with his sister instead of walking. Or flying, but his parents didn't know about that. In any case, he'd just meet up with his friends, afterward.

Now that he was at school, with his own phone number guide tucked into his back pack, Danny calmly reviewed the material for his upcoming test in his mind. A test on a subject he was fairly decent at, with help from Jazz. Today was going to be a great day!

* * *

After turning in his exam, Danny stepped out of the test-taking room with a giant grin and a happy-go-lucky outlook on life. Everything was looking great! The semester was over, he'd have plenty of time to hang with his friends and beat on some ghosts, and he had a brand new cell phone- with integrated ghost scanner, ecto-foamer, and the patented Fenton Fudge Finder!

Despite his dad's "fixes" to his phone, it worked great. He'd already called home to thank his parents, texted "_fruitloop_" to Vlad- whose number was pre-installed as speed-dial one, and ordered two dozen large pizzas to be delivered to the Baxter house.

And to top it off, he'd gotten two text messages while in his exam. Luckily, Danny thought to turn off his phone before going in. He'd hate to lose it on the first day of using it.

Opening the text messages by order of arrival, Danny read, "_Hey, danny!_" and "_You got a phone!_"

Danny chuckled and replied to the two numbers, waiting until later to assign Sam and Tucker's names to them. "_Hey guys! Giv me 5 min before i go ghost an fly ovr to met yu as danny phantom, then well do nasty burger._"

He started down the hall, when a minute after sending the messages, his phone rang loudly. Danny looked to see he'd received replies from the same numbers.

"_What? your phantom?_"

"_Youre my ghost boy?_"

Danny frowned, suddenly losing some of the confidence he'd been feeling mere moments ago. "_Who is this?_" he texted back.

"_Star_"

"_Paulina! Your truest love!_"

Danny blanched as he read the text messages. He'd assumed that the only people who'd try to contact him right away would be his best friends. Never would the ghost boy have imagined that the first texts he'd receive, other than Vlad replying with something about insolence, would be from Paulina and Star. Or that he'd be stupid enough to tell the first people to text him he was Danny Phantom.

Feeling his breath leave him, it suddenly hit Danny that this was it. The secret was out. Both Paulina and Star knew that he was part ghost. Amity Park's local hero. Danny Phantom.

He looked down as his phone as it rang again, signaling a text message from Star, followed immediately by one from Paulina.

"_OMG! fenton/phantom, why didnt i think of that!_"

"_You know, I do like the sound of Paulina Fenton now!_"

Danny slammed his phone shut and started hyperventilating. He stared at the device in his hands as he stumbled backwards. Not paying any attention to his surroundings, he collided with a couple of students walking by. In turn, they fell backwards into a larger group, whose backs were to them. The small body of students found themselves tangled up on the floor.

Danny shakily stood to his feet, only to hear a very familiar voice say, "Mr. Fenton!" Wincing, he turned to find Mr. Lancer frowning at him with his arms crossed.

"Mr. Fenton, while school policy allows cell phones on campus, I do not want students wandering with their eyes glued to their phones, oblivious to the events around them. I know the end of the semester combined with the latest phone number guidebook can be rather distracting, but I ask you for the love of The Red Badge of Courage to either stand still and out of the way or _put the phone in your pocket_." After his lecture, directed somehow both at Danny individually and the students in general, the bald teacher continued on his way.

Passing the group of kids getting themselves untangled, Mr. Lancer didn't spare them a second glance. He already knew who would listen. As for the others, it was the last day of school before break, anyways.

"Those guidebooks are riddled with mistakes, anyways," Mr. Lancer muttered as he continued down the hallway. Before turning the corner, the book-title-spouting teacher shouted back to Danny over his shoulder, "And make sure you keep it on vibrate on campus!"

Danny set his phone to vibrate and slid it in his pocket. He heaved a deep sigh as he pondered what he was going to do with this unexpected development. Walking onwards, he headed for the nearest exit of the school, suddenly not feeling very well. Danny tried to calm himself by taking into consideration that Paulina and Star had lots of reasons to keep his secret to themselves. Well, Paulina had lots of reasons. Star would keep it secret just because Paulina would tell her to do so.

Danny rubbed his temples. He didn't know what to do now that the two of them knew his secret. How long could they keep it? What would they want from him to convince them to keep it secret? What else could go wrong today?

Suddenly, Danny felt his pocket vibrate. Carefully pulling out his phone, he determined not to send any messages except to identify who a number belonged to. Checking his most recent text message, the ghost boy read, "_Dany, hows it goin? its sam._"

Sighing in relief, Danny shook his head as he double-checked his friend's identity with a reply text of his own. "_R u really sam?_"

Only moments later, a new text message appeared. "_Uh… yeah, last i checkd._"

Danny found a corner to hide in while he texted back, panic starting to set in his stomach as he once more focused on what he had done. "_I cant beleve it, i textd Paulina n Star acidently telling them im danny phantom! where ar yu and tuck?_"

The next reply from the other phone took a few minutes. Danny hoped Sam would be understanding and have some good advice on how to handle the situation. He really didn't know what he would do without her.

Suddenly, a new message appeared and Danny anxiously opened it up, hoping for some good news. "_…you thot i was manson? this is sam west, from chem._"

Danny froze. His eyes slowly widened, continuously moving with no signs of stopping. He could barely command his fingers to move when another text came through from the same number. "_Wate, yur dany phantom?_"

Danny's jaw dropped. His face grew even paler than his ghost half's. How could he have done so much damage within the past five minutes? How could his entire world turn upside down with nothing more than this mainstream tool for communication?

Danny shook his head, pulled out the phone number guide from his backpack, and desperately tried once more to reach his friends. He had to have the right number this time!

On the other side of the school, Kwan felt a vibration in his pocket.

* * *

"_Hey, danny, its sam n tuck. meet us at nasty burger in ten?_" Sam finished the text and hit send.

Looking to her right, where Tucker walked beside her, she finally relented. "All right, I'll admit it, I have joined the texting crowd. I could've called, but instead I sent him a short series of sometimes poorly spelled words."

Tucker smiled. "And the world didn't end?"

Sam glared. "The day's still young."

Tucker's grin spread further, as a new spring entered his step. "I love technology! It never fails or steers me wrong! Every virus is avoidable, with the right tools-"

"And the right friend's access to them?" Sam interrupted.

Tucker's grin turned sheepish. "Did I forget to thank you for that?"

Sam rolled her eyes.

Shrugging, Tucker finished what he was saying as he held his beloved PDA in admiration, "In the end, everyone will realize that technology is the ultimate format for conversations. You can never go wrong with texting!"

As if reacting to the boasts of the African American teen, Sam's phone went off. Shaking her head at her friend's obsession with technology, the goth girl pulled her phone back out and saw that a new text had arrived. Sam flipped it open to read the message. Then she read it again, raising an eyebrow. "Tucker, what do you make of this?"

Tucker stopped petting the PDA and stuck it in his pocket, taking Sam's offered phone for a look. After frowning at the contents of the text message, he looked quizzically at her and asked, "Are you sure it's from Danny?"

Sam shrugged. "It's his number."

They both looked at the screen once more, and the text message that read, "_Ar yu real? im scared_"


End file.
